Beeke was elected a scholar of
Corpus Christi,
Oxford in May 1769. He gained a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1773, a Master of Arts degree in 1776, a Bachelor of Divinity in 1785, and a Doctorate in Divinity in 1800. In 1775 Beeke became a fellow of
Oriel College and was Junior Proctor of the university in 1784. Beeke was
Regius Professor of Modern History between 1801 and 1813. Beeke was vicar of the
University Church of St Mary the Virgin, Oxford in 1782, rector of
Ufton Nervet, Berkshire in 1789, Dean of Bristol in 1813, and vicar of
Weare in 1819. Beeke gained a reputation as a fiscal expert following his 1799
Observations on the produce of the income tax, and on its proportion to the whole income of Great Britain, which was expanded and reprinted in 1800. His work on taxation prompted
Pitt the Younger to introduce the first
income tax in 1799 in order to fund the British effort in the
French Revolutionary Wars. Beeke's unpublished manuscripts and correspondence also show his wider interests in economics.
Beekite, a distinctive form of
chalcedony which occurs in the preservation of fossils by
silicification, was named to honour Beeke. Beeke was very interested in
botany. He made contributions to
Lysons' Magna Britannia records, and corresponded with Sir
James Edward Smith, a fellow and first president of the
Linnean Society of London. Beeke is credited as the binomial author of at least one plant species,
Lotus pilosus Beeke, first described and published in
Turner and
Dillwyn's Botanical Guide. This species was later thought to be
Lotus uliginosus Schkuhr, which is now settled as a
synonym of
Lotus pedunculatus Cav., a kind of
trefoil. Beeke died at Torquay on 9 March 1837. ==Author abbreviation==